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DSL Video Collection — E thru I |
The Elegant Criminal (L'Elegant Criminel)
(1992), color, French with English subtitles, 120
min. (#136)
Directed by Francois Girod. Cast: Daniel Auteuil,
Jean Poiret, and Jacque Weber.
Study of the criminal mind emerging from the
obsession with repression in nineteenth century
France.
The Enforcer (Republic 1950), b & w, 87 min. (#25)
Directed by Bretaigne Windust, Screenplay by Martin Rackin. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Zero Mostel.
Bogie is the crusading D.A. working on the hottest case of the year. He has a killer's confession, a score of missing persons, and the leader of the murder-for-profit ring in jail. Then the star witness is killed and Bogie has 24 hours and one last chance for a conviction.
A Few Good Men (1992), color, 138 min. (#126)
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore.
Cruise and Moore are teamed to defend two marines charged with killing a fellow marine while Nicholson defends the code. (No, not the UCC.)
The Firm (1993), color, 154 min. (#131)
Cast: Tom Cruise, Hal Holbrooke, and Holly Hunter
John Grisham's novel about what may be waiting for you in that first job. Be careful what you do when you go to the islands!
First Monday in October (Paramount 1981), color, 99 min. (#26)
Directed by Ronald Neame. Screenplay by Jerome Lawrenceand Robert E. Lee. Cast: Walter Matthau, Jill Clayburgh.
The first woman is appointed to the Supreme Court and (in a bit of uncanny prediction) she is a conservative from California. She battles with the cranky, old liberal Justice played by Matthau. Of course this is the work of the Liberal elite in Hollywood and Clayburgh has a skeleton in the closet. (Typical conservative!)
Die Fledermaus (1987), color, 146 min. (#92)
Johann Strauss operetta in which a lawyer, nicknamed the Bat (die Fledermaus), plays a trick on his best friend and they all end up in jail after a wonderful night at the ball. This is essential background for those going to Vienna — put on your tie and tails and pop a cork.
From the Hip (1987), color, 112 min. (#106)
Cast: Judd Nelson and Elizabeth Perkins.
A good laugh after you learn something about evidence and advocacy — NOT!
Gate of Hell (1953), color, 86 min. (#57)
Written and Directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. Cast: Machiko Kyo and Kazio Sugiyama.
Academy Award winning recreation of medieval Japan. A samurai becomes a monk to atone for his crime after love for an honorable married woman leads to tragedy. Those who do family law might wish that all their cases were as well acted and in a beautiful setting.
The Gay Divorcee (1934), b & w, 117 min. (#113)
Cast: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Mimi's lawyer scheme to get grounds for a divorce backfire when she falls in love with guess who. A great song and dance movie which introduced "Night and Day" and "The Continental."
Geronimo (MGM, 1962), color, 101 min.(#171)
Cast: Chuck Connors and Adam West.
Connors stars as the Apache leader trying to save the tribe from the U.S. Army.
Geronimo (Turner, 1993), color, 102 min. (#203)
Cast: Joseph Running Fox, Nick Ramus, Michelle St. John.
The Apache leader portrayed with more historic accuracy. Part of Turner Broadcasting's Native Americans Series.
Geronimo: An American Legend (Columbia Pictures, 1993), color, 115 min. (#180)
Cast: Walter Hill, Jason Pasic, Wes Studi, Robert Duvall, and Gene Hackman.
The Geronimo story more from the U.S. Army's point of view.Note: the three versions of the Geronimo story are an interesting background to the course in Native American Law.
Good Evening Mr. Wallenberg (1990), color, Swedish, German and Hungarian with English subtitles, 115 min. (#135).
The true story of a Swedish businessman who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust. Hailed as a hero around the world, Wallenberg was taken prinsoner by the Russian Army and disappeared.
Grand Illusion (1937), b & w, 95 min. (#75)
Directed by Jean Renoir. Cast: Jean Gabin and Erich von Stroheim.
Shortly before Hitler plunges Europe into World War II, this monumental film tries to examine why men submit to warfare's "Grand Illusion." In a World War I German prison camp it is easy to see the hypocracy of war. This should have been required viewing for the entire population of Yugoslavia two years ago. Propaganda (Triumph of the Will) usually beats out great art (Grand Illusion) in the course of human events.
Henry V (1989), color, 138 min. (#81)
Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Paul Scofield, and Derek Jacobi.
Wonderful adaption of Shakespeare's Henry V. Great battle scenes as Henry tries to assert his claim to the Throne of France.
Hunt the Man Down and Smash the Rackets (double feature), b & w, 137 min. (#30)
In Hunt the Man Down (1951), a fugitive is captured and tried for a murder committed twelve years earlier.
In Smash the Rackets (1938), a special prosecutor eliminates racketeering from his jurisdiction.
I Am the Law (Columbia 1938), b & w, 83 min. (#31)
Directed by Alexander Hall. Screenplay by Jo Swerling based on Fred Allhoff's Liberty Magazine serial. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Barbara O'Neil, Wendy Beal, and Otto Kruger.
Law Professor Lindsey (Robinson) is drafted by civic leaders to put an end to the corrupt urban underworld. His investigation begins but all the witnesses turn up dead. He enlists the help of his students. (What were law students like in the 1930s anyway?) Little do they know the lengths to which the mob will go to insure silence.
I Confess (Warner Bros. 1952), b & w, 95 min. (#32)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Screenplay by George Tabori and William Archibald, from Paul Anthelme's play Nos Deux Consciences. Cast: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, and Karl Malden.
The sanctity of a confessional prevents Father Logan (Cliff) from revealing a murder in which he becomes a suspect. Can nothing save Father Logan from the criminal justice system?
I, the Jury (1981), color, 111 min. (#120)
Cast: Armand Assante, Barbara Carrera, and Alan King.
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer in a mediocre remake of the classic — remove the artistry and add sex and graphic violence.
I Want to Live (MGM 1958), color, 122 min. (#33)
Directed by Robert Wise. Cast: Susan Hayward, Theo Bikel.
Based on the true story of Barbara Graham, a fast-living "party-girl" who finds herself accused of a murder she did not commit. Framed by the real killers and vilified by the press, she is sentenced to death in the gas chamber. No one is likely to forget the shattering climax.
In Cold Blood (Columbia 1967) b & w, 134 min. (#34)
Written and Directed by Richard Brooks based on the novel by Truman Capote. Cast: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe.
Docu-drama of the callous murder of a Kansas farm family by two aimless drifters. They are caught after a year-long search, tried and sentenced to hang.
In the Name of the Father (1994), color, 133 min. (#143)
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson.
Story of a man wrongly accused of being an IRA terrorist and the lawyer who proves his innocence.
Inherit the Wind (MGM 1960), b & w, 128 min. (#35)
Directed by Stanley Kramer. Screenplay by Nathan Douglas and Harold Jacob Smith. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Fredrick March, Gene Kelly, Dick York, and Donna Anderson.
A young teacher in a rural Southern town is jailed for teaching the theory of evolution. Two legal giants of the time, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, arrive to duke it out — science versus religion in the courtroom. Gene Kelly dances through the film as a muckraking newspaperman.
Intolerence (1916), b & w, 178 min. (# 209 and #210)
Director: D. W. Griffith. Cast: Lillian Gish, Robert Herron, and Constance Talmadge.
Melodramatic stories of prejudice and inhumanity are woven together in this classic silent film.
